Department for Transport

Large Goods Vehicle Drivers: Driving Licences

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how long the backlog is at the DVLA for HGV licence applications; how many staff currently process HGV licence applications; what assessment he has made of the adequacy of staff resources available to tackle application delays; and if he will make a statement.

Trudy Harrison: On 22 September, there were 56,144 applications for vocational driving licences awaiting processing. These are a mix of first applications for a provisional vocational licence and renewals and include those applying for entitlement to drive both HGVs and buses. It is not possible to separate them out.The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is prioritising applications for provisional vocational licences so these drivers can take their training quickly. Applications for provisional vocational licences are currently being processed within around 10 days of receipt.It is important to note that the majority of those applying to renew their vocational licence will be able to continue to drive while their application is being processed.It is not possible to specify how many staff are working on applications for HGV licences as most Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) operational roles require employees to carry out a range of tasks.The DVLA continues to explore opportunities to reduce turnaround times for paper applications. Extra staff have been recruited and the DVLA is seeking extra office space to house more staff to help reduce backlogs and provide future resilience and business continuity.

A96: Dual Carriageways

Andrew Bowie: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he work with (a) Moray and (b) Aberdeenshire Councils to help ensure that the dualling of the A96 between Inverurie and Inverness goes ahead.

Trudy Harrison: Roads within Scotland are the responsibility of the Scottish Government. However, the Department is willing to collaborate, where appropriate, on matters benefitting people across the United Kingdom.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2021 to Question 41806 on Coronavirus: Vaccination, on what date the approximately 0.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine the UK procured through COVAX were delivered.

George Freeman: Approximately 0.5 million Pfizer doses procured through COVAX were delivered earlier this year. These doses helped the NHS deliver our vaccination programme as quickly as possible.

Department of Health and Social Care

Electronic Cigarettes: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on reports of the (a) prevalence of vape use by children and (b) potential health effects of that use including prolonged nose bleeds, chest pains and dizzy spells.

Maggie Throup: No recent discussions have taken place.However, the Department, working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, will continue to carefully monitor e-cigarette use amongst children and any potential health effects.

Smoking

Mark Jenkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2021 to Question 31543, on Tobacco, whether statistics from the ONS bulletin, entitled Adults smoking habits in the UK, will be incorporated into the Tobacco Control Plan for England following the delay in publication of that bulletin until November 2021.

Maggie Throup: The Tobacco Control Plan will utilise data from the Office for National Statistics’ bulletin when it is published later this year.

Health Services: Undocumented Migrants

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to ensure that undocumented migrants without proof of address or ID (a) are not refused by GP surgeries and (b) can access covid-19 vaccinations.

Maggie Throup: The national patient registration guidance from NHS England states that a fixed address or identification is not required to register or access treatment at general practitioner (GP) practices. Where necessary, the practice can use its address to register the patient.Whilst an individual’s National Health Service number might be used for administration purposes, it is not a pre-requisite to be offered the COVID-19 vaccine. For those not registered with a GP, NHS regional teams, working with various local systems, will contact those individuals to ensure they are offered the vaccine. Vaccinations against COVID-19 are offered to every adult living in the United Kingdom free of charge, regardless of immigration status and no immigration checks will be carried out.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress has been made on recognising the covid-19 inoculation status of people vaccinated outside the UK, US, and Europe.

Maggie Throup: From 4 October we are extending our inbound vaccination policy to 17 new countries and we continue to work with international partners to explore further expansion of the policy.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Jonathan Gullis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the progress of the covid-19 vaccine rollout in (a) Stoke-on-Trent and (b) Staffordshire.

Maggie Throup: As of 23 September 2021, 177,685 first doses and 161,108 second doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in Stoke-on-Trent Upper Tier Local Authority Level (UTLA) and 661,325 first doses and 615,517 second doses were administered in Staffordshire UTLA.

Radiotherapy: Finance

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to update reimbursement tariffs to incentivise a transition to adaptive radiotherapy.

Maria Caulfield: The NHS Long Term Plan set out NHS England and NHS Improvement’s commitment to review the national tariff, in particular to ensure that appropriate incentives are in place to encourage providers to deliver modern techniques and to upgrade and replace equipment. This work has been delayed due to the pandemic.

Primary Health Care

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help increase access to primary care services in the community.

Maria Caulfield: We have committed to delivering an extra 50 million appointments a year in general practice by increasing and diversifying the workforce. This will improve access for patients and additional support for staff to provide a wider range of care options for patients outside of hospital. We have made available an additional £270 million from November 2020 until September 2021, ringfenced for general practice, to ensure general practitioners (GPs) and their teams are able to continue to support all patients during the pandemic.NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that National Health Service sight tests are now back to, or above, pre-pandemic levels. NHS dentists have been asked to meet as many prioritised needs as possible, focussing first on urgent care and vulnerable groups, followed by overdue appointments. The Department is working with NHS England and NHS Improvement and Public Health England to increase access to dental care, taking into account infection prevention and control and social distancing requirements.The Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework 2019-24 sets out how community pharmacy will support the NHS Long Term Plan by providing more clinical services such as treating minor ailments. Since 2019 a range of services have been introduced that reduce some pressure on other parts of the NHS, in particular GPs.

Primary Health Care: Consultants

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to hospital specialists in community settings.

Maria Caulfield: As part of its work to expand access to diagnostic services in the community, the National Health Service is establishing community diagnostic hubs. The hubs will provide acute diagnostic services normally provided in hospitals, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays, echocardiograms and endoscopy. The NHS is planning to open 44 hubs this year which will deliver an additional one million scans.

Palliative Care

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he has taken to implement the recommendations from the Care Quality Commission's report Protect, respect, connect – decisions about living and dying well during COVID-19 published in March 2021 to (a) establish a Ministerial Oversight Group to look into the issues of end of life care in more detail, (b) support people, their families and their representatives to understand good practice when reaching DNACPR decisions, and (c) work with health service and care partners, voluntary sector organisations and advocacy services to establish a unified approach to guidance that supports DNACPR decisions for service users.

Maria Caulfield: The Department established a Ministerial Oversight Group responsible for the delivery of the recommendations of the Care Quality Commission’s report. The first meeting was held on 8 June and will meet quarterly to monitor progress.NHS England and NHS Improvement have published patient-facing information on Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) to support people in understanding good practice around such decisions, which is available at the following link: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/do-not-attempt-cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-dnacpr-decisions/The Ministerial Oversight Group is working closely with health and care partners, voluntary sector organisations and advocacy groups to ensure adherence to guidance on how DNACPR decisions are used.

Cancer: Screening

Peter Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that all trans people are included in necessary cancer screenings applicable to them.

Maria Caulfield: Public Health England (PHE) has published a leaflet advising both trans men and women to contact their general practitioner (GP) about breast screening, as long-term hormone therapy may increase their risk of developing breast cancer. The leaflet also advises that transgender men registered as male should ask their GP to update their records to ensure that they are invited for cervical screening.PHE also provides advice to health professionals on working with trans men and women, to ensure that patients feel comfortable or can access services in other ways if necessary.

Motor Neurone Disease: Research

Paul Girvan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will commit £50 million over five years to establish and operate a motor neurone disease translational research institute.

Paul Girvan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to support the Spending Review submission from the Motor Neurone Disease Association, MND Scotland and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation which calls for £50 million of funding for motor neurone disease-specific research.

Maria Caulfield: The next Spending Review will set out the Government’s spending plans for health and social care for future years.Over the past five years, the Department has spent over £10 million on motor neurone disease (MND) research through the National Institute for Health Research. Additionally, UK Research and Innovation, through the Medical Research Council, has spent £49.5 million on MND research over the past five years. This includes research which aims to increase our understanding of the causes and genetic mechanisms of MND. We are currently working on ways to significantly increase further research on dementia and neurodegeneration including medical and care interventions.

Medical Equipment and Medical Treatments: Manufacturing Industries

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will bring forward legislative proposals to require medicine and medical device makers to declare all payments made to (a) doctors, (b) teaching hospitals, (c) research institutions and (d) charities.

Maria Caulfield: The Government’s response to the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review accepted in principle the need for stronger reporting of payments made by industry to healthcare professionals and organisations. The Department continues to explore options to expand and reinforce current industry schemes, including making reporting mandatory through legislation.

Maternity Inequalities Oversight Forum

Caroline Nokes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the (a) membership of the Maternity Inequalities Oversight Forum, (b) dates on which that Forum has met and (c) policy recommendations that Forum has made to Government.

Maria Caulfield: The Maternity Inequalities Oversight Forum met on 13 October 2020 and 21 April 2021. The forum has not made any specific recommendations to the Department to date. We are unable to provide the membership of the Maternity Inequalities Oversight Forum as it relates to the formulation of Government policy.

Maternity Services: Safety

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by the Care Quality Commission, entitled Safety, equity and engagement in maternity services, published on 21 September 2021, what steps his Department is taking in response to the findings in that report on lessons learned and the recording of incidents involving patients’ safety on maternity wards.

Maria Caulfield: NHS England and NHS Improvement recently invested an additional £95 million in maternity services to support the recruitment of 1,200 more midwives and 100 consultant obstetricians. An equity and equality strategy, funded by a further £6.8 million, has been published to address the causes of inequalities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care. The NHS Resolution Maternity Incentive Scheme is working to improve the recording of incidents through its ten safety actions, by encouraging the use of the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool and improving the quality of reporting to the Maternity Services Data Set.

Social Services: Reform

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to publish the social care White Paper.

Gillian Keegan: We are committed to the delivery of world-leading health and social care across the whole of the United Kingdom and our announcement of 7 September 2021 marked an important step on the journey to reforming adult social care. We will work with care users, providers, and other partners to develop these plans and publish further detail in a white paper for reform later this year.

Allergies: Health Services

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the UK has a patient-focused allergy strategy that focuses on prevention and rapid treatment for those who suffer allergies.

Gillian Keegan: Whilst there are currently no plans to develop an allergy strategy, the Government recognises the challenges faced by people with allergies and is taking several actions to support them.This includes The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019 which will come into effect on 1 October 2021, requiring food retailers and operators to display full ingredient and allergen labelling information on every pre-packed food item they sell. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency also continues to issue and update guidance for prescribing and use of adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs), including a communications campaign to improve the safe and effective use of self-administered AAIs.The Department continues to invest in research into food allergy, with £2.3 million awarded to the National Institute for Health Research over the last five years.

Disability: Children

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on health recovery funding for disabled children.

Gillian Keegan: The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and the Chancellor of the Exchequer discuss a range of issues related to health and care services.To tackle the elective backlog, the Government agreed in September 2021 an additional £1 billion this year - £2 billion in total for 2021/22 - and £8 billion over the next three years, which will deliver an additional nine million checks, scans and operations, reducing waiting times for patients, including disabled children.As part of COVID-19 recovery planning, we are also working with the Department for Education and NHS England and NHS Improvement to improve the provision of health services for disabled children.

Dementia: Research

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 15 June 2021 to Question 12211 on Dementia: Research, if he will publish a timetable for the Government’s delivery of the dementia moonshot.

Gillian Keegan: There is currently no planned date for publication of a strategy to deliver the dementia moonshot. We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England, including dementia research, for future years in due course.

Blood Tests: Shortages

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to tackle the shortage of blood test kits.

Edward Argar: We have secured tens of millions of additional blood tubes, including importing additional supplies from the European Union and the United States of America, to ensure clinically urgent testing continues. The Department is working closely with NHS England, the devolved administrations and the National Health Service to minimise any impact on patient care.

Hospitals: Coronavirus

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2021 to Question 45205 on Hospitals: Waiting Lists, when he plans to publish details of his Department's plans for dealing with fines and charges for late delivery of services; and what assessment he has made of the impact of fines and charges on hospitals' ability to tackle the backlog in healthcare.

Edward Argar: We have no plans to do so as we have paused work on dealing with such fines and charges. This is to allow the National Health Service to focus capacity on the recovery of elective services. No formal assessment has been made of the specific impact of the fines and charges.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to (a) restore dementia diagnosis to pre-covid-19 levels and (b) improve the diagnosis rate to above those levels.

Gillian Keegan: We continue to closely monitor the dementia diagnosis rate on a monthly basis. The Government has made £17 million available this financial year to NHS England and NHS Improvement to reduce dementia waiting lists and increase the number of diagnoses. NHS England and NHS Improvement are working to deliver targeted efforts to support recovery of referrals, diagnosis, and where appropriate, support access to post-diagnostic support.We will be setting out our plans on dementia for England for future years in due course, including improving diagnosis rates.

Alzheimer's Disease: Diagnosis

Greg Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to improve patient access to (a) FDG-PET and (b) CSF tests for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease in line with NICE guidelines.

Gillian Keegan: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations for health and care, including on assessment, management and support for people living with dementia and their carers. NICE’s guideline NG97 states that FDG-PET and CSF tests should be considered when the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is uncertain.Clinical commissioning groups are expected to commission appropriate services, including such testing, in line with their local population health needs.

Dementia: Diagnosis

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to invest in equipment for diagnosing dementia to prepare the NHS for the availability of disease-modifying treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Gillian Keegan: NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently exploring which pathways, processes and equipment might best support future disease modifying treatments, including for Alzheimer’s disease.

Mental Health Services

Kate Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to mental health services in community settings.

Gillian Keegan: NHS England and NHS Improvement have consulted on introducing five new waiting time standards that have been developed with pilot and early implementer sites. These include waiting time standards for access to community mental health services for adults and children and young people. The consultation closed on 1 September 2021 and NHS England and NHS Improvement expect to publish the response to the consultation on the proposals by the end of this year.In addition, we have published our Mental Health Recovery Action Plan for 2021/22, which includes an additional £110 million to expand adult community mental health services including psychological therapies, implementing the community mental health framework, investment in crisis services, as well as additional investment in suicide prevention programmes.

Carers and Social Services: Advocacy

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds figures on how much local authorities in England have spent on advocacy for carers and social care clients in each of the last five years.

Gillian Keegan: The information requested is not held centrally.

Home Care Services

Steve Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 2 August 2021, to Question 31414, on Home Care Services: Local Government, if he will publish the content of the service continuity and care market review referred to in that Answer.

Gillian Keegan: The Service Continuity and Care Market Review took the form of all local authorities carrying out a self-assessment in autumn 2020, to ascertain the risk to the continuity of care across all adult social care markets in England over the winter to the end of March 2021. We are unable to provide the content of these self-assessments as they are commercially sensitive and the disclosure of information may prejudice local authorities’ ability to deliver their services.However, the National Audit Office published a high-level summary of the review findings in, ‘The adult social care market in England’ in March 2021, which is attached.The adult social care in England  (pdf, 830.7KB)

Health Services

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that people are not denied access to NHS services as a result of a lack of access to internet or mobile phone devices.

Gillian Keegan: One of the priorities of the phase three National Health Service response to COVID-19 is to help prevent digital exclusion. NHS England and NHS Improvement’s health inequalities improvement team is working closely with NHSX in developing a strategic plan to tackle digital inclusion and access.All NHS organisations have been asked to ensure that no matter how people choose to interact with services, they should receive the same levels of access, consistent advice and the same outcomes of care.

Social Services: Finance

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to provide financial support to the social care sector ahead of the availability of additional funding raised by increasing National Insurance contributions.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make immediate funding available for adult social care ahead of the increase in National Insurance Contributions and Dividend tax rates by 1.25 per cent from April 2022.

Gillian Keegan: Over the next three years we will invest £5.4 billion in adult social care reform. During the pandemic, we have made available over £2 billion for adult social care and a further £6 billion to local authorities to address COVID-19 pressures. We also provided councils with access to over £1 billion for social care in 2021-22 to support them to maintain care services and meet demand.

Eating Disorders: Mental Health Services

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people waiting for treatment for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.

Gillian Keegan: No specific estimate has been made.

Attorney General

Sam Pybus

Peter Gibson: To ask the Attorney General, if she will examine the length of sentence handed to Sam Pybus under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Suella Braverman: My office received a number of referrals to review the sentence in this deeply disturbing case. I agree that the sentence appears too low, and I have referred it to the Court of Appeal to be reviewed. The case will be heard in due course and the Court of Appeal will decide whether to increase the sentence.

Department for Education

Vocational Education: Qualifications

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education,what steps he is taking to ensure that students can continue to study BTEC qualifications in the future.

Kim Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the effect on students of removing funding for certain BTEC qualifications.

Alex Burghart: Employers are facing a skills shortage that we must act to address. It is vital in a fast moving and high-tech economy that we close the gap between what people study and the needs of employers. This is why we are introducing over 20 T Levels and are strengthening the routes to progress into skilled employment or further study with high quality qualifications that are fit for the future. T Levels are challenging qualifications developed with 250 leading employers. They include a meaningful nine-week industry placement and will equip more young people with the skills, knowledge and experience necessary to access skilled employment or further training.We set out the qualifications we intend to fund alongside A levels and T Levels at level 3 in July 2021. We are clear that any qualifications that are funded to be taken alongside or instead of A levels or T Levels must be high quality and lead to good outcomes. We will fund level 3 BTECs and/or other Applied General or similar qualifications where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that T Levels and A levels cannot provide. These must meet new quality criteria to be approved for funding.We have been clear that we expect the changes to be generally positive as students will have access to higher quality qualifications in the future, including new T Levels. This will put students in a stronger position to progress onto further study or skilled employment.

Pre-school Education

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the role of early years services is in the Government's Levelling Up agenda.

Will Quince: Levelling up is at the heart of the agenda to build back better after the COVID-19 outbreak and to deliver for every part of the UK. The department takes a dual approach to disadvantage: tackling outcome inequalities nationally while tilting efforts to, and working specifically in, places of greatest need.In education, ability is evenly spread but opportunity is not. We know that differences in outcomes start early. To really tackle our levelling up challenge, we must look at our support for children and young people at every level, from support for families and childcare, through to university, and to develop skills throughout life.We are already making progress. On 2 June 2021 we announced an additional £1.4 billion education recovery package, which includes a £153 million investment in evidence-based professional development for early years practitioners, including through new programmes focusing on key areas such as speech and language development.This is in addition to the £27 million which we are already investing to support children’s early language development in light of the COVID-19 outbreak:£17 million is to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in schools that would particularly benefit. Two thirds of primary schools have already signed up for the programme.£10 million will support language development for pre-reception children in the next academic year.What happens outside of schools and settings is also important. The government is investing over £34 million to champion family hubs. This approach will help to support children of all ages and their families across a broad range of needs in their localities. This investment includes establishing a new national centre for family hubs, run by the Anna Freud Centre for Children and Families; a new transformation fund to open family hubs in around 10 local authorities; an evaluation innovation fund; and work with local authorities to develop data and digital products that will support the practical implementation of family hubs.The government will publish a landmark Levelling Up White Paper later this year, setting out bold new policy interventions to improve livelihoods and opportunity in all parts of the UK.

Children: Day Care

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the findings of the survey of 20,000 parents by Mumsnet with 13 other groups, published in September 2021, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the cost of childcare on (a) household bills and (b) the career choices of parents.

Will Quince: The department welcomes the contribution that Mumsnet and their partner organisations have made around this topic. However, it is important to note that this survey is unweighted, and the sample size represents a small proportion of all parents with a child or children in the early years.Ipsos MORI conducted wave 9 of our parent poll, ‘Childcare use, perceived impact on child development, information on working from home, and awareness and use of free entitlements for families of 0-4 year-olds during COVID-19’ in July 2021, with a smaller but representative sample of 1,000 parents of children aged 0-4 in England. This is available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/childcare-use-perceived-impact-child-development-information-working-home-and-awareness-and-use.The data has been weighted to match the population profile of parents of children aged 0-4 in England by region, social grade, and the age of the selected child.The Parent Poll asked different questions to the Mumsnet survey but key points from the findings include:The affordability of weekly childcare costs is unchanged for just over half of parents compared to before the COVID-19 outbreak, and for 3 in 10 parents their weekly childcare costs are now easier to meet.The majority of parents (91%) who used formal childcare before the COVID-19 outbreak, and are currently using it, say that their child is spending about the same number of hours or more in formal childcare as they did before.More than half (56%) of parents report that their child is currently using formal childcare, this increases to 94% when looking at just those children who were receiving formal childcare before the COVID-19 outbreak.Only 6% of parents whose child was not receiving formal childcare said they would like to use formal childcare but have not been able to find a suitable provider. This is only approximately 2% of all parents.Nearly two thirds of parents of 0-4 year olds currently using childcare (64%) agree that the hours their child(ren) can access formal or informal childcare/school fits with the working hours of the adults in the household.

Pre-school Education: Finance

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding for early years services.

Will Quince: We are making our usual preparations for the imminent Spending Review, which will set departmental budgets for all financial years from 2022-23 to 2024-25.Ministers and officials from the department will continue to have discussions with HM Treasury as the Spending Review progresses.

Pre-school Education: Standards

Liz Twist: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of early years provision.

Will Quince: High quality, accessible childcare is important in ensuring that every child has the best possible start in life. The overall quality of provision within the early years sector remains high and, as of 31 March 2021, 96% of providers on the Ofsted Early Years Register were judged good or outstanding, which is a substantial increase from 74% in 2012. Ofsted are responsible for monitoring the quality of provision.We continue to monitor the sufficiency of childcare through regular attendance data collection and monitoring the open or closed status of providers. We also discuss sufficiency of provision in our regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any significant sufficiency or supply issues and we have not seen any significant number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either this term or since early years settings re-opened fully on 1 June 2020.Ofsted data shows that as of March 2021 the number of childcare places available on the Early Years Register has remained broadly stable since August 2015.

Ministry of Justice

Prison Service: Staff

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, if he will make an assessment of potential risks of the policy changes made in that framework to the distinction between prison officers and healthcare staff in prisons.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, what (a) medical professional organisations and (b) criminal justice non-governmental organisations were consulted during the development of that framework.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, what steps he plans to take to help ensure compliance with that policy framework in contracted out prisons.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, what estimate he has made of the additional annual resource impact of implementing that framework across all public sector prisons in England and Wales.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, for what reason no additional resources have been identified as being required for the implementation of that framework in contracted out prisons, while additional resources have been identified as being required for implementation in public sector prisons.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Pregnancy, MBUs and Maternal Separation in Women’s Prisons Policy Framework, published on 20 September 2021, when and in what form he plans to publish statistics on the (a) numbers and (b) outcomes for (i) individuals who have experienced pregnancy, the post-natal period, and/or pregnancy outcomes within 12 months of entering prison or during a sentence, (ii) mothers and child-rearing individuals applying for and spending time on MBUs with their children and (iii) mothers, child-rearing individuals and adoptive parents separated from children up to the age of two years old in the 12 months prior to entering prison, as a result of imprisonment, or following time on an MBU.

Victoria Atkins: Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service’s (HMPPS) new policy was developed following a fundamental review that involved extensive stakeholder consultation, including with Health partners; a resource impact assessment and a data protection impact assessment.1) As per 2.1-2.8 of the policy, healthcare is commissioned through the health sector. The role of HMPPS is to ensure appropriate access to healthcare – including information sharing and physical access. 2) a) Medical professional organisations consulted include:i) NHS England and NHS Improvement (including the central Health and Justice Team, Clinical Reference Groups and regional commissioners)ii) Local prison healthcare providers commissioned by NHSE/Iiii) Public Health England (PHE)iv) Public Health Wales (PHW)v) The Royal College of Midwives b) Criminal justice non-governmental organisations consulted include:i) Voluntary sector organisations including Birth Companions, Born Inside, Hibiscus, Barnardo’s and Family Actionii) Academics including Dr Shona Minson, Dr Lucy Baldwin and Dr Laura Abbottiii) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons and Probation (HMIP)iv) The Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO)  3) Where a contractor fails to implement the policy, contractual action will be taken as necessary. Policy implementation in both public and contracted prisons will be supported by a variety of assurance structures and processes, to monitor compliance. This includes external and independent assurance by HMIP, PPO and OFSTED. 4) A resource impact assessment has been undertaken for public prisons as part of the development of the new Policy Framework. This assessment identified a need for additional funding to support implementation in public prisons, which has been provided. 5) Resource impact assessments were also undertaken for contracted prisons as part of the development of the new Policy Framework requirements. These identified that no additional funding was required to fulfil new policy requirements. 6) National data on pregnancy and births and Mother and Baby Units is published annually as part of the HMPPS Annual Digest: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2020-to-march-2021. Data on abortions and pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage and stillbirth are recorded on healthcare systems as they are medical in confidence. Information on a prisoner’s caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors/Directors to ensure appropriate support can be provided to offenders and their families. We are developing changes to the initial reception questionnaire to enable national data collection that can be published.

Courts: Coronavirus

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of resources available to effectively tackle court backlogs in the recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.

James Cartlidge: We have taken decisive action to ensure the courts have sufficient resources to tackle our outstanding caseloads in the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.We spent over a quarter of a billion pounds on recovery last financial year, making court buildings safe, rolling out new technology for remote hearings and recruiting an additional 1,600 HMCTS staff. We will run each Crown Court site to its fullest, with no limit on sitting days this financial year, so more cases can be heard and waiting times can come down. Following the lifting of social distancing restrictions, we are in the process of fully reopening our existing physical estate. We have also extended 32 of our Nightingale courtrooms until March 2022 to maximise our sitting capacity this year.

Slavery and Trafficking Reparation Orders

Brendan O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Slavery and Trafficking Reparation Orders under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 have been made for victims of the Daesh atrocities in each year since the passing of that Act.

James Cartlidge: The Ministry of Justice holds data on prosecutions and court outcomes for modern slavery offences; however, centrally held information in the courts proceedings database cannot identify the exact circumstances of the offence that led to a slavery or trafficking reparation order, for example, to identify that it was issued under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 as a result of a Daesh atrocity. This information may be held on court record but can only be obtained by manually searching court records at disproportionate cost.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Iraq: Kurds

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will publish a response to Early Day Motion 457 on Arrests and detentions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

James Cleverly: We are aware of the detention and conviction of a number of journalists and activists in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) and we are following the situation closely.I have raised my concerns over restrictions on media freedom in the KRI with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masrour Barzani. Our Ambassador in Baghdad and our Consul General in Erbil discuss these issues with their interlocutors in the Kurdistan Regional Government. The Foreign Secretary discussed the stability of Iraq and the KRI with the KRI's President Nechirvan Barzani during his visit to London over 15-17 September.

British Indian Ocean Territory: Mauritius

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his French counterpart on Mauritius' claims to sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Wendy Morton: The Foreign Secretary speaks to French counterparts on a large range of issues. This issue has not, however, been recently raised.

Developing Countries: Education

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of reductions to Official Development Assistance for education on the education of children with disabilities.

Wendy Morton: The FCDO is committed to ensuring that children with disabilities are able to access a quality education as set out in our 2018 Education Policy and the Disability Inclusion Strategy. The then Foreign Secretary and Ministers considered equalities impacts as they made decisions on 2021/22 Official Development Assistance spend.

Developing Countries: Education

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the total Official Development Assistance for education budget is for financial year 2021-22; and what percentage change does that represent compared with the previous year.

Wendy Morton: The FCDO will spend £400 million of bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) on girls' education for 2021-22. ODA is reported on a calendar year basis, and includes sectoral breakdowns such as education. The FCDO National Statistics publication, 'Statistics on International Development' includes this information. Provisional ODA spend for 2020 is available, with sectoral breakdowns due to be published in the autumn. The UK's ODA spend for 2021, including an activity level dataset, will be published next year.FCDO publishes regular open data through the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). This operational data covers current live programmes, and will include 2021 spend once business planning is concluded. The raw data can be accessed at the IATI Registry, and is shown on the Development Tracker website at https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Disability

Marion Fellows: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when she plans to revise the DFID Disability Inclusion Strategy for her Department; and what changes she plans to make.

Wendy Morton: The FCDO will publish an enhanced Disability Inclusion Strategy by end 2021 which will reaffirm the UK's commitment to disability inclusion internationally.The Strategy will be adapted to reflect the FCDO's combined diplomatic and development resources and wider geographical reach. It will incorporate a longer term vision to 2030. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and global climate crisis, it will include new and emergent thematic and cross-cutting issues alongside the existing themes. In line with our partnership approach and 'nothing about us without us' the Strategy is being developed in consultation with people with disabilities and their representative organisations across our geographic remit.

Department for Work and Pensions

Social Security Benefits: Disability

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the impact on disabled people of (a) income-related employment support allowance, (b) universal credit and (c) other means-tested benefits, which are based on joint-income.

Chloe Smith: No assessment has been made. Income-related Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit are means-tested welfare support. It is longstanding policy that income-related benefits treat all couples as a single household unit when assessing benefit entitlement. Where claimants have income available to meet their household's everyday living costs, such as through a partner's earnings or savings, their entitlement to benefit is adjusted accordingly. These benefits are not paid to claimants who have sufficient income available from other sources to support themselves. The general principle is that income, other than earnings, which is provided to meet everyday living costs, is fully taken into account in the calculation. The Government understands disabled people may face additional cost, which is why income provided to meet additional costs through benefits such as Personal Independence Payments and Disability Living Allowance are not taken into account when determining entitlement to benefits. The Department has brought forward a Green Paper on health and disability support, focusing on the welfare system. The Green Paper will explore how the welfare system can better meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions now and in the future, to build a system that enables people to live independently and move into work where possible.

Employment: Disability

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published in July 2021, what recent assessment she has made of the progress of the pilots for the Access to Work Adjustments Passport.

Chloe Smith: The Adjustment Passport pilots have recently commenced with Contractors and Freelancers and are due to go live with young disabled people leaving University and Veterans leaving the Armed Forces at the end of October 2021. The pilots will enable us to gain an understanding of whether the passport reduces the need for assessments where the customer’s needs remain the same, and if it empowers the passport holder to have conversations with future employers about adjustments. Following an evaluation, if the pilots prove successful, the passport will be made available to support all people with disabilities and health conditions providing a transferable record of adjustments and reduce the need for unnecessary assessments.

Employment: Disability

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published in July 2021, what steps she is taking to increase the awareness of Access to Work among disabled employees.

Chloe Smith: We are taking a range of steps to continue to raise awareness of Access to Work among people with a disability or long-term health condition. We regularly promote the scheme through the Department’s social media channels, signposting people to the Access to Work pages on the JobHelp website and on gov.uk. We are also ensuring advisers who work with potential customers, including Jobcentre Plus, health professionals and advisory groups, have the information and tools to act as advocates for the scheme. In addition, we are continuing to work with stakeholders, partners and employer associations to raise awareness of Access to Work through communications to their customers, and we have produced a communications toolkit to help them raise awareness. We are continuing to promote Access to Work to employers as part of the Disability Confident scheme.

Disability: Finance

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress her Department has made on its plans to set up an Extra Costs Taskforce.

Chloe Smith: I refer the honourable member to the response to PQ UIN 42013 [https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-09-03/42013].

Employment: Disability

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department plans to launch a consultation on workforce reporting on disability for large employers.

Chloe Smith: I refer the honourable member to the response to PQ UIN 43124 [https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-09-06/43124].

COP26

Climate Change: Education

Marion Fellows: To ask the President of COP26, what plans her Department has to help ensure that the UK’s hosting of COP26 will include disability inclusion as a priority for action on climate adaptation of education systems.

Alok Sharma: Climate action must be inclusive of people with disabilities and support their rights. This means ensuring that information and services are accessible, challenging social norms that create barriers to access and disaggregating data by gender, age and disability. People with disabilities must be involved in climate action at all levels and engagement with, and capacity building of, disabled people’s organisations on climate issues is essential.Through our focus on adaptation for COP26, we are encouraging the international community to do more to drive effective delivery of adaptation action on the ground, including through implementation of the Principles for Locally-led Adaptation. These Principles provide a framework for ensuring that those most impacted by climate change - including people with disabilities, indigenous people, women and youth - are empowered to plan for and protect their own futures.We are committed to championing inclusivity throughout our COP26 Presidency. This is why there is a dedicated COP26 civil society engagement team that works with NGOs and rights groups, including those from the disability community, who have established an official led disability working group that meets regularly, to help guide our preparation for delivering a disability inclusive summit.

Climate Change: Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the President of COP26, what consideration he has made of calls from civil society and other stakeholders for a high level political focus on Loss and Damage through a (a) Loss and Damage Champion or (b) Ministerial pairing to ensure that work is urgently undertaken in order to deliver (i) concrete progress on Loss and Damage at COP26 and (ii) a clear pathway through to COP27.

Alok Sharma: We have heard and agree with calls from civil society for the need for a high level political focus on loss and damage at COP26 and in the run up to COP27. The UK is currently consulting Parties on the idea of a high level envoy for loss and damage.We agree that a clear pathway is needed and intend to respond to parties’ and observers’ calls (including at the July ministerial) to step up efforts to address loss and damage, through locally-owned plans, institutional capacity, technical expertise and accessible finance. We will have a dedicated session at Pre-COP with Ministers designated to lead discussions. We also expect this to play a significant part in the discussions at COP26, subject to the agreement Parties reach on the agenda of the conference in the coming weeks.

Climate Change: Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the President of COP26, what steps he is is taking to help ensure that COP26 delivers substantial progress on loss and damage, including mandating work for financing options to increase the level of support to frontline communities, as called for by the Climate Vulnerable Forum and other stakeholders.

Alok Sharma: As incoming Presidency, the UK has been gathering Parties’ views on what more is needed in addition to the Santiago Network to deliver progress on Loss and Damage. An emerging point is the need for existing funds and action in the international and humanitarian system to be better coordinated and scaled up, and better oriented to local level needs.We are working with the international community to increase support for locally led action, including through the Adaptation Action Coalition. In parallel the UK is asking other donors to follow our example in supporting the LDC’s Initiative for Effective Adaptation and Resilience (LIFE AR) which has the aim of assisting LDCs to put in place plans, finance and delivery mechanisms to respond to local needs. The UK endorsed the Principles for Locally Led Adaptation at the Climate Adaptation Summit in January 2021, and successfully persuaded other Foreign and Development ministers to do the same under the UK’s G7 Presidency. We are also working to address the barriers that restrict and prevent finance flowing to the local-level through the Taskforce on Access to Climate Finance.We welcome the input of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and have been engaging with them through their regional dialogues, as well as through bilateral engagement on their suggestions and plans for COP26.

Climate Change: Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the President of COP26, what discussions he has had with developed country (a) negotiators and (b) ministers on the need for new and additional finance for loss and damage in the last 12 months.

Alok Sharma: In my role as COP26 President, I have met with more than 100 Ministers from at least 65 countries. As part of these discussions, as well as in public fora, I have set out the importance of developed countries meeting and surpassing the commitment to jointly mobilise $100 billion of climate finance a year through to 2025, from a range of public and private sources.At both Ministerial and official level we continue to raise the need for finance and action on loss and damage, noting that relevant finance for averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage comes from sources under and outside the convention.As COP26 incoming Presidency, the UK has convened six consultations (workshops and a Heads of Delegation meeting) which have devoted substantial time to the issue of operationalising the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, in addition to a dedicated session on loss and damage at the July Ministerial which I convened in London where the issue of finance was raised. I will also hold discussion on adaptation, loss and damage, and finance at pre-COP at the end of September, with a view to political leaders providing the strategic framing for negotiator-level discussions at COP26.

Climate Change

Caroline Lucas: To ask the President of COP26, what steps he is taking to consult widely with parties to the UNFCCC on the decisions needed at COP26 to operationalise the Santiago Network for Loss and Damage; what provision he has made in the COP26 agenda to discuss and agree loss and damage matters, including getting the COP decisions needed to operationalise the Santiago Network; and what assessment he has made of whether the Santiago Network will be fully operational by the end of COP26.

Alok Sharma: As COP26 incoming Presidency, the UK has convened six consultations (workshops and a Heads of Delegation meeting) which have devoted substantial time to the issue of developing the Santiago Network, in addition to a dedicated session at the July Ministerial which I convened in London. The agenda for COP/CMA will be decided on by the Parties. My officials are also discussing the agenda with Parties over the next few weeks. Whether the Santiago Network will be operational by the end of this year depends on the view that Parties take at the conference on the process they wish to follow, but the UK will use our convening power to maintain momentum and encourage a fair, inclusive and impactful outcome.

Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to simplify the process of family reunion across national boundaries for Afghan refugees.

Victoria Atkins: The Government’s family reunion policy allows a partner and children under 18 of those granted protection in the UK to join them here if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country. For Afghan refugees in the UK, we already have rules in place for their close family members to apply to join them in the UK and these can be found at https://www.gov.uk/settlement-refugee-or-humanitarian-protection/family-reunionThe UK is working with international partners to secure safe routes out of Afghanistan as soon as they become available. However, while the security situation remains extremely volatile, we recommend people still in Afghanistan do not make applications and pay application fees at this time as they will not be considered until biometrics are provided. The British Embassy in Kabul has currently suspended in-country operations and all UK diplomatic and consular staff have been temporarily withdrawn.Those Afghans who are outside of Afghanistan and able to get to a Visa Application Centre to provide their biometrics can make an application in the usual way.A policy statement on Afghanistan resettlement has been published on gov.uk www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ensure that Afghan refugees arriving in the UK have access to toothpaste, nappies, medicines and other basic necessities.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the length of time Afghan nationals will have to wait to be housed in the UK from the opening of the Afghanistan citizens’ resettlement scheme.

Victoria Atkins: All those brought to the UK under Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme will be provided with essential living items whilst accommodated in bridging hotels.They will also receive comprehensive integration support as they start their new lives in the UK. A package of support to acclimatise to the UK, learn English, and find work, will enable rapid self-sufficiency and social integration in UK communities.The Government is working closely with local authorities to secure permanent accommodation for families and ensure families are moved into these homes as soon as they become available.

Asylum: Afghanistan

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to identify people in Afghanistan who may be eligible for settlement in the UK under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement and Scheme.

Victoria Atkins: Through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) the UK will relocate up to 20,000 people at risk, including women and girls and minority groups, so they can rebuild their lives in safety.Further information on the eligibility, prioritisation and referral of people for the ACRS is set out in the policy statement published on gov.uk on 13 September, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what mechanism she estimates the number of people who have crossed borders to third countries from Afghanistan who will qualify for the Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme; and on what basis the cap of 5,000 was decided for help under that scheme.

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the resources needed to bring forward the Government's 20,000 resettlement commitment over 5 years under the Afghan citizens' resettlement scheme to 1 year; if she will make it her policy to increase the UK's current resettlement commitment; and if she will make a statement.

Victoria Atkins: The Government has committed to welcoming around 5,000 people in the first year of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, and up to 20,000 in total. This is one of the most ambitious resettlement schemes in our country’s history. Dedicated officials have worked day and night to support this unprecedented response.It is important that we resettle people safely and provide appropriate support including with healthcare, education, jobs and housing. When considering the number of people we resettle, it is right that we take into account the capacity of local communities to provide this support, and that we do not take more people than we can accommodate.On 13 September, I made a statement to the House of Commons providing details of the scheme. A policy statement is now published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement.I would urge all Rt Honourable and Honourable Members to encourage their Local Authorities to come forward and support the efforts to resettle Afghans.

Chevening Scholarships Programme: Afghanistan

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has been contacted by Afghan Chevening scholars in the last three weeks; and what her Department's policy is on eligibility of Afghan Chevening scholars for Government support.

Victoria Atkins: All those brought to the UK under ARAP and ACRS will have the right to work, access to education and healthcare and be able to apply for public funds. The Afghan Chevening Scholars who arrived in the UK were given conditions of permission which allow them to start their course of study.The Government has written to Local Authorities to confirm that evacuees from Afghanistan are eligible for Government support, including Chevening Scholars.

Asylum: Afghanistan

Sarah Owen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will increase the number of Afghan refugees the UK will accept from the current 5,000.

Victoria Atkins: The Government has committed to welcoming around 5,000 people in the first year of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, and up to 20,000 in total. This is one of the most ambitious resettlement schemes in our country’s history.It is important that we resettle people safely and provide appropriate support including with healthcare, education, jobs and housing. When considering the number of people we resettle, it is right that we take into account the capacity of local communities to provide this support. We would urge the Honourable Members to encourage Local Authorities to come forward with offers of support.A policy statement covering further details of the Scheme is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/afghanistan-resettlement-and-immigration-policy-statement.

Immigration: Afghanistan

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Afghan nationals who will be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK.

Victoria Atkins: Since April 2021, we have relocated around 7,000 under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, and 1,400 former staff and families were relocated between 2013 and March 2021 under the previous scheme for Afghan interpreters. The ARAP scheme will remain open to those eligible, and in addition we are committed to resettling up to 20,000 under the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme in the coming years.Those arriving under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy or Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme will receive fee-free indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Those who have already relocated to the UK under Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy or the previous scheme for Afghan Locally Employed Staff and were granted limited leave are able to apply free of charge and at any point within the period of their temporary leave to convert it to indefinite leave to remain.

Refugees: Afghanistan

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to welcome a larger number of vulnerable Afghans eligible for the Afghanistan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme in the event that the 5,000 quota is reached within the first six months of the first year.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to welcome a larger number of vulnerable Afghans eligible for the Afghanistan citizens’ resettlement scheme in the event that the 20,000 quota is reached by the second year.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Afghan nationals who have already been evacuated from Kabul airport will be counted in the 20,000 quota for the Afghanistan citizens’ resettlement scheme.

Claudia Webbe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Afghan nationals who have already been evacuated from Kabul airport but are in third countries will be counted in the 20,000 quota for the Afghanistan citizen’s resettlement scheme.

Victoria Atkins: The Government has worked at pace to develop a new and bespoke resettlement scheme, announced on 18 August, which will relocate 5,000 vulnerable people in its first year. The ACRS is one of the most generous schemes in our country’s history, which will give up to 20,000 people at risk a new life in the UK over coming years.We must ensure people can be properly supported when they get to the UK. A huge programme of work spanning different government departments, charities, NGOs, local authorities and communities is already underway to resettle people safely and provide support including with healthcare, education, jobs and housing. It is right that we support local authorities, and that we do not take more people than we can accommodate.Some of those who arrived in the UK under the evacuation programme, which included individuals who were considered to be at particular risk – will be the first to be resettled under the ACRS.The Government will work with international partners and NGOs in the region to implement a referral process for those inside Afghanistan, (where safe passage can be arranged) and for those who have recently fled to other countries in the region. We will need some time to work through the details of this process, which depends in part on the situation in Afghanistan.

National Asset Management Agency: Northern Ireland

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent updates she has (a) sought and (b) received from the National Crime Agency on its inquiry into NAMA's sale of its Northern Ireland loan book.

Damian Hinds: I receive regular updates on a wide range of operational issues from the National Crime Agency. As the investigation mentioned is ongoing I am unable to comment further.

Visas: British Students Abroad

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial and practical support her Department is putting in place to support students applying for visas to study abroad.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office only has responsibility for UK visa policy in relation to those who wish to study in the UK.The matter of financial and practical support available for outgoing UK students is for the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs.

Immigration

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to provide access to free support for vulnerable individuals with pre-settled status to assist them in switching to settled status.

Kevin Foster: Since April 2019 we have awarded £17 million in grant funding to a network of 72 organisations, who provide a wide range of invaluable support across the UK, ensuring those vulnerable and most at-risk continue to get the help they need.We committed a further £4.5 million of grant funding for the period 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021 to fund the current network of 72 organisations to continue to provide a range of support across the UK well beyond the 30 June deadline. We are committed to making sure everybody eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) can apply for the status they deserve, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. This support is also available to those with Pre-Settled Status applying for Settled Status.We are currently in consultation with the Grant-funded Network (GFN) to continue this support from 01 October 2021 – 31 March 2022.We intend to issue reminders to people granted pre-settled status to apply for settled status before their pre-settled status expires if they have not already done so. We will set out the arrangements for this in due course.

Immigration

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department plans to take to remind people with pre-settled status to switch to settled status when necessary to do so.

Kevin Foster: Since the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) opened in March 2019, the Home Office has undertaken a broad range of communications and stakeholder engagement activity to encourage EU, EEA and Swiss citizens and their family members to apply for status under the EUSS. Extensive, and regularly updated information, factsheets and leaflets on the EUSS (including pre-settled to settled status conversion) have also been made available on GOV.UK. Stakeholders, including the Grant Funded Network of 72 organisations, have also been provided with regular updates, including on considerations for pre-settled status holders.As of 30 June 2021, the Home Office had granted 206,490 applications for settled status from pre-settled status holders.The Home Office also continues to communicate with EUSS status holders with information relevant to their status, including pre-settled to settled status applications. This currently includes an email exercise to all EUSS status holders, being sent throughout late September to October 2021 with reminders on key information, including pre-settled to settled status conversion.When a person is granted pre-settled status, they also receive notification of what pre-settled status means, including the option to apply for settled status as soon as they qualify for it. This will generally be once they have completed five years’ continuous residence in the UK. Pre-settled status holders’ online UK Visas and Immigration account also provides key information on what a status holder can do in the UK, explains they can apply for settled status once they have lived continuously in the UK for five years and provides a link to GOV.UK with further information on how to do so.The Home Office intends to provide individual pre-settled status holders with a timely reminder to apply for settled status before their pre-settled status expires. We will set out the arrangements for this in due course.

Immigration: EU Nationals

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of applications to the EU Settlement Scheme have been successful; and how many and what proportion of those submitted before the June deadline have received their Certificate of Application to date.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office publishes data on the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) in the ‘EU Settlement Scheme statistics’.The latest published information on EUSS applications concluded to 31 August 2021, by outcome type, can be found in the table on the EU Settlement Scheme statistics collection page on GOV.UK.The data requested on Certificates of Application is not available. Where a person who applied to the EUSS by the 30 June 2021 deadline has not yet received a Certificate of Application, they can rely on the Home Office letter or email acknowledging their application to confirm they have made an in-time application.

Passports: Applications

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what HM Passport Office's current timescale is for processing applications for a British passport.

Kevin Foster: I refer the Right Honourable member to the answer given on 9 September 2021, UIN 43418.

Northern Ireland Office

Northern Ireland Office: Police Service of Northern Ireland

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many meetings he or his predecessors have had with the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland in each of the last three years.

Conor Burns: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland engages regularly with the Chief Constable of the Police Service for Northern Ireland to discuss a range of issues including National Security matters.

Platinum Jubilee 2022: Northern Ireland

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what plans his Department has to celebrate the Queens' Platinum Jubilee in Northern Ireland.

Conor Burns: My officials are working closely with officials from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport who are the lead Government department for Jubilee celebrations, in support of Buckingham Palace. You may be aware that a number of UK-wide projects are already in development such as the lighting of Jubilee Beacons. The public are also being encouraged to participate in Big Jubilee Lunches, in order to bring the Jubilee celebrations into the heart of communities.

Northern Ireland Office: Flags

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many and what proportion of the Union Jack flags purchased by his Department in each of the last two years were manufactured in the UK.

Conor Burns: My Department has not purchased any Union Jack Flags in each of the last two years.

Treasury

Probate

Jane Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of further increasing the probate limit.

John Glen: The Government has made no recent assessment in relation to the effect of increasing the probate limit. In most circumstances the provision of a bank’s services, including the administration around bereavement, are a commercial decision for the bank. The Government does not intervene in these decisions. The treatment of customers by UK banks and building societies which are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is governed by its Principles of Business. This includes a general requirement for firms to provide a prompt, efficient and fair service to all their customers, including those who have recently suffered a bereavement. The FCA does not have specific rules or guidance regarding probate in its rules. However, all firms regulated by the FCA are bound by its Principles which apply to the way banks and building societies conduct themselves. This includes how they handle probate. The main current account providers also publish information about the additional services they offer consumers, including information on the bereavement services they offer. More information can be found on the FCA website: https://www.fca.org.uk/data/mandated-voluntary-information-current-account-services/providers-links#voluntary The Government remains supportive of previous industry efforts to improve handling of these sensitive cases, including the implementation of the British Bankers’ Association’s (now known as UK Finance) Bereavement Principles. These Principles include a commitment from firms to provide support to meet individuals’ needs throughout the bereavement process and to work to resolve everything as quickly and simply as possible.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Telecommunication: Scotland

Jamie Stone: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of telegraph poles situated on private land in Scotland were installed after 2017.

Julia Lopez: The Department does not have access to the number of telegraph poles or ducts situated on private land across the UK, as this is a matter for each individual operator.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Agriculture: Sustainable Development

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the details available to farmers on the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Victoria Prentis: Last November, we published our Agricultural Transition Plan setting out all our future environmental land management schemes, starting with the Sustainable Farming Incentive. We set out what we intend to achieve by 2028 and how we will help farmers manage the move away from Direct Payments over a seven-year transition period to give everyone time to plan and adjust. In March of this year, we launched the pilot of the Sustainable Farming Incentive. This was so that we could test, at scale, the future scheme in real-world scenarios, with a wide range of farmers and land managers. Our goal is to collaborate with farmers and land managers to design and deliver a scheme that works best for them. We are currently undertaking user research and surveys on these pilot applicants with a view to informing and improving the scheme. From this we will learn how farmers and land managers have fared in understanding the information presented to them. In June, we published a progress update of the Agricultural Transition Plan. Here, we gave further details of the early rollout of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme and what it will pay for. We also set out clear guidance on the scheme’s eligibility criteria and how farmers can be rewarded for their environmentally sustainable actions when it opens in 2022. We will be publishing more information about the Sustainable Farming Incentive in November, including confirmation of the standard payment rates.

Environmental Land Management Scheme

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what comparative assessment he has made of the support available to farmers (a) under environmental land management schemes and (b) in the countries with which the Government is pursuing free trade deals.

Victoria Prentis: We are undertaking an assessment of our proposed reforms to the agricultural industry as they are developed, including the impact of our future schemes that reward environmental land management. It is our intention to publish a comprehensive assessment in due course.The Government also produces and publishes analysis for each new free trade agreement it pursues and is committed to publishing a full impact assessment following the conclusion of negotiations prior to implementation of an agreement.The OECD publishes an annual agricultural policy monitoring and evaluation report which contains estimates of support to agriculture. One metric of particular interest from that publication is the ‘producer support estimate’ (PSE) as a percentage of receipts. As an example, it shows that for the UK the PSE is approximately 20% of receipts compared with 1% in New Zealand and 2% in Australia.

Environmental Land Management Scheme

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of whether the delivery timeline of environmental land management schemes will ensure timely access to new payments for farmers moving on from old payments.

Victoria Prentis: The first Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pilot agreements will start this year. Then, next year we will start to rollout core elements of the SFI, expanding those elements until we have the full offer available in 2024/2025. Importantly, we are running Countryside Stewardship and the SFI in parallel, and both are open to new and existing scheme agreement holders, though we will not fund the same action twice. The final round of Countryside Stewardship will open in 2023, with agreements starting on 1 January 2024. We plan to start a phased rollout of the Local Nature Recovery scheme from 2023. We will be launching at least ten Landscape Recovery projects between 2022 and 2024. This makes us confident that the full environmental land management offer will be on tap before the end of the transition period.

Litter: Coastal Areas

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to tackle littering in coastal areas.

Rebecca Pow: Local councils are responsible for keeping public land clear of litter and Defra is committed to supporting them in doing so. We published the Litter Strategy for England in April 2017, setting out our aim to deliver a substantial reduction in litter. We have almost doubled the maximum fixed penalty fine for littering to £150. Through a recent grant scheme administered by the environmental charity WRAP, we have also awarded almost £1m to local councils to provide new litter bins. We have been proud to support national clean-up days such as the Great British Spring Clean and the Great British Beach Clean, and we will continue do so in future. Measures in the Environment Bill, including the Deposit Return Scheme and restrictions on single-use plastic items, will also provide significant additional support to local councils in tackling this issue.

Horses: Transport

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the evidence presented in the BBC Panorama documentary, entitled The Dark Side of Horse Racing, broadcast on 24 July 2021, that some horses are travelling from Ireland to Great Britain to be slaughtered, whether his Department has plans to review its policy and legislation on the distance travelled by horses for slaughter in response to that evidence; and if he will make a statement.

Rebecca Pow: The Government is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare during transport. We consulted earlier this year on a wide range of proposals to improve how animals are transported in England and Wales, including reduced journey times for horses. In August we published a joint response, with the Welsh Government, to the consultation[1] outlining how we will be taking reforms forward. [1] Improvements to animal welfare in transport: summary of responses and government response (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Fly-tipping

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to coordinate (a) Police and Crime commissioners, (b) the Environment Agency and (c) local police forces to ensure that they are adequately responding to fly-tipping.

Rebecca Pow: Defra is committed to working with partners to stamp out the menace of fly-tipping wherever we can. Our 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy set out our strategic approach to tackling waste crime, including fly-tipping. Our focus is on enabling local action by providing a clear legal framework of rights, responsibilities and powers and setting national standards.Local authorities and the Environment Agency are encouraged to work in partnership with national and local police bodies in carrying out their enforcement functions against fly-tipping. Defra are working with a wide range of interested parties through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group (NFTPG) to raise awareness of fly-tipping and to develop a fly-tipping toolkit. Members of the NFTPG include local authorities, the National Police Chiefs Council and the Environment Agency. The toolkit will support partnership working, intelligence sharing, dealing with fly-tipping associated with unauthorised encampments and the use of technology to report fly-tipping.In the Environment Bill, we are bringing forward measures to go further, giving agencies and authorities enhanced powers of entry and access to evidence to strengthen their ability to tackle waste crime, and enhancing our ability to track waste and to crack down on rogue operators.